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Uncharted 2 Among Thieves
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is an action-adventure platform video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the sequel to the 2007 game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. It was first shown and announced on December 1, 2008. Officially announced in the January 2009 issue of Game Informer, it was released in October 2009. A major critical and commercial success, it was named by Metacritic as the most critically acclaimed game of 2009, and won Game of the Year awards on IGN, Eurogamer, Game Informer, Joystiq, Kotaku, Giant Bomb, AIAS, X-Play, Game Developers Choice Awards, and the Spike Video Game Awards for the year 2009. A sequel and third entry to the series, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, was released on November 1, 2011. Gameplay Uncharted 2 is an action-adventure platform video game played from a third-person perspective, with the player in control of Nathan Drake. Drake is physically adept and is able to jump, climb, and scale narrow ledges and wall-faces to get between points. Drake can be equipped with up to two firearms – one single-handed and one two-handed – and a limited supply of grenades. Drake can pick up weapons, automatically replacing the existing weapon he was using, and additional ammunition from killed enemies. The player can direct Drake to take cover behind corners or low walls using either aimed or blind-fire to kill his enemies. The player can also have Drake fire while moving. If Drake is undetected by his enemies, the player can attempt to use stealth to take them out, such as by sneaking up behind them to knock them out with one hit, or by pulling an unsuspecting foe over a ledge from which Drake is hanging.[11] If all of the foes patrolling an area are killed stealthily then other waves that would normally appear do not. Some areas of the game require the player to solve puzzles with the use of Drake's journal, which provides clues towards the puzzles' solutions. When enabled, a hint system provides gameplay clues, such as the direction of the next objective. Throughout the game are one-hundred and one special treasures that may be hidden or in difficult-to-reach places that the player can collect. There is also one secret "hidden" relic exactly the same as the one in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Collecting these treasures, along with completing certain feats within the game, is tracked by the awarding of medals, which gives the player in-game money to use to unlock extra content on the disc, including concept art, game movies, and game cheats such as guns with infinite ammunition. A large portion of the in-game medals are used to award trophies. Multiplayer Uncharted 2 features both competitive and co-operative multiplayer. The co-op multiplayer allows a maximum of three players to take the roles of Drake and two other "hero" companions and features missions involving gunfights, platforming, and teamwork-based objectives. Players can also assist their comrades if they become critically injured or if they are grabbed by an enemy. The competitive multiplayer allows a maximum of ten players to play against each other in two teams of five. Six competitive modes are featured: Deathmatch, Plunder, Elimination, Turf War, King of the Hill and Chain Reaction. Deathmatch features two teams of five, with one team acting as heroes and the other as villains. Players can choose their own appropriate character models (such as Drake, Elena, Sully and new characters Tenzin and Chloe for the heroes team). As players accrue points and rank up, they can purchase more skins for both heroes and villains. Players can select two Boost abilities which assist them in the matches. Plunder is similar to the traditional capture the flag game mode, and sees each team attempt to capture the treasure from a central point in the map and return it to their base; the player carrying the treasure is slowed down a great deal, and may also choose to hurl the treasure away at any point, in order to keep it out of reach of the enemy, or to pass it to a teammate. Elimination has two teams of five players against each other with the objective of killing everyone on the other team. In Elimination, the players do not respawn. The goal is to eliminate the other team three out of five times. Chain Reaction is a mode that is similar to Turf War. This has the player capturing posts, but the player must do them in a specific order – one team works out from their base needing to capture 1 through 5 while the other team starts out from their home and needs to snag 5 through 1. King of the Hill has players capturing a hill, spawned on the map to score points. They must stay in the hill to score points while the enemy team tries to do the same. Gold Rush is a cooperative mode of play where 2–3 players must team up to obtain a treasure, which is randomly spawned on the map, and take it back to their base, much like Plunder. However, AI enemies try to stop the players from returning the treasure. If a player goes down and is not revived before the timer goes out, they will not come back until the next round. In each consecutive round the enemies become tougher to defeat. Survival is the second cooperative mode of play, where 2-3 players must work together to defeat a total of ten waves of enemies, each wave becoming more and more difficult. A new co-op game mode, titled "Siege", was also added, in which 2-3 players must team up to secure a zone while holding off waves of enemies. Plot The narrative opens with a quote attributed to Marco Polo, "I did not tell half of what I saw, for I knew I would not be believed." The plot revolves around the doomed voyage home of Marco Polo from China in 1292. After spending almost 20 years in the court of the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan, Marco Polo departed with fourteen ships and over six hundred passengers – but when he arrived in Persia a year and a half later, only one ship and eighteen passengers remained. Polo never revealed what had happened to the lost ships. The story begins in medias res, with a wounded Nathan "Nate" Drake (Nolan North) waking up to find himself in a train hanging off a cliff with a bloody stomach wound. Through flashbacks, it is revealed that former associate Harry Flynn (Steve Valentine) and old girlfriend Chloe Frazer (Claudia Black) approached him with a job to steal a Mongolian oil lamp from an Istanbul museum. Nate accepts the job when he learns that the lamp may lead to the treasure of Marco Polo's lost fleet. Harry and Drake acquire the lamp, which contains a map showing that the lost fleet had been transporting the Cintamani Stone from the mythical city of Shambhala (better known as Shangri-La) before being thrown ashore in Borneo by a tsunami. Taking the map, Flynn double-crosses Drake, who is arrested and imprisoned for three months. Chloe, who claims to have had no knowledge of Flynn's treachery, asks for the help of Drake's friend Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Richard McGonagle) to secure his release. Nate and Sully follow Flynn and his boss Zoran Lazarevic (Graham McTavish), a Serbian war criminal who is widely thought to be dead, to Borneo. With the help of Chloe working within Lazarevic's camp as a mole, they discover that the lost fleet never actually possessed the Cintamani Stone. They locate a tomb containing the bodies of Polo's passengers, as well as a Tibetan phurba and a letter from Polo saying that the next clue is in Kathmandu, Nepal in a temple. Flynn and his men appear in the tomb soon after and take the letter, while Nate and Sully escape by jumping off a cliff into a river. While Sullivan backs out, deciding that the quest is too risky, Nate and Chloe head to Nepal, finding conflict as Lazarevic's mercenary army ravages the city looking for the right temple. After surmising that the temple they are looking for is adorned with one of the symbols on the phurba, the couple survey the area from the rooftop of a local hotel, finding its location. En route to the temple, the pair runs into Elena Fisher (Emily Rose) and her cameraman Jeff (Gregory Myhre), who are tracking down Lazarevic to prove he is still alive. The four reach the temple and discover that the stone and Shambhala are in the Himalayas. As they are about to leave, the group is ambushed, and Jeff is shot by one of Lazarevic's men. Despite Chloe's insistence to leave Jeff behind, the group pushes on until they are caught. Chloe reluctantly pulls her gun on Nate to protect her "cover", while Lazarevic executes Jeff. While Lazarevic and Chloe leave for the train yard, Nate and Elena manage to escape just as Flynn is about to kill them. The couple manages to catch up with Lazarevic's train on a stolen jeep. Nate boards the train and has to fight a bunch of soldiers, survive an attack from a helicopter (twice) and fights Lt. Darza, (who has possession of the Phurba dagger). Drake eventually gets the dagger back after an intense fist fight. Darza regains concious, and attempts to kill Drake, only to be killed by Chloe. But Chloe, who is upset about Nate having taken Elena and Jeff along earlier, refuses to leave with him. As the two argue, Flynn arrives and shoots Nate in the abdomen. Chloe then jumps in front of Flynn, giving Nate a chance to run. With Flynn distracted, soldiers pursue Drake until he is cornered. With no other option, Nate shoots a pile of propane tanks, killing Flynn's men and sending Nate's half of the train over a steep cliff. Returning to where the game began, Nate escapes the train and travels through a snow storm, recovering the phurba among the wreckage before falling unconscious. He awakens in a Tibetan village, where he is reunited with Elena and is introduced to a German man named Karl Schäfer (Rene Auberjonois). Schäfer tells Nate that the phurba is the key to finding Shambhala, but Nate tells him he is no longer interested. To convince him otherwise, Schäfer sends Nate and the village leader, Tenzin (Robin Atkin Downes), to find the remains of the men in his expedition, who were looking for Shambhala and the stone 70 years earlier. Traveling through a series of caves to an ancient temple filled with yeti-like creatures, Nate and Tenzin discover that Schäfer's men were SS members on an Ahnenerbe expedition, and that he had killed them to protect the world from the power of the stone. They return to find Lazarevic's men attacking the village. After securing the village, Nate and Elena find out that Schäfer has been kidnapped along with the phurba. They then track Lazarevic's convoy to an abandoned monastery. The two locate a mortally wounded Schäfer, who tells Nate he must destroy the Cintamani Stone. Schäfer then succumbs to his wounds and dies. Nate then tells Elena that he is going to continue his search. Elena then says she and Nate should split-up to find the secret entrance to Shambala faster, which he agrees to. Eventually, Nate locates Chloe, who surrenders the phurba after he promises to take Lazarevic down. Nate and Elena use the phurba to unlock the secret passage to Shambhala underneath the monastery, but Lazarevic corners them and forces Nate to go with Flynn to open the gate. When the gate opens the group is attacked by the monsters from the ice caves, but Lazarevic manages to kill them. It is then revealed that they are actually the human Guardians of Shambhala, powered by the Cintamani stone and dressed like monsters to scare off anyone who trespasses in the city. Just as Lazarevic prepares to kill Elena and Nate, another wave of Guardians attacks, which allows them and Chloe (whose cover has been blown by Flynn) to escape. Making their way to the top of the central temple, Nate discovers that the Cintamani stone is in fact a giant amber of petrified blue resin embedded in a giant, prehistoric tree of life. The true worth of Shambhala is the blue sap of the tree, which when ingested makes the drinker nearly invincible. As they prepare to go after Lazarevic, a wounded Flynn arrives and detonates a grenade, killing himself and seriously wounding Elena. Nate leaves Elena in Chloe's care and sets off to confront Lazarevic at the tree. Nate arrives just as Lazarevic drinks the tree's sap, which renders him nearly indestructible and heals his old wounds and scars. Detonating the pockets of explosive resin in the tree with his weapons, Nate defeats Lazarevic and leaves him to be brutally beaten and killed by the Guardians. Nate reunites with Chloe and Elena and they escape the city as a series of explosions begins to destroy Shambhala. Back in the village, Chloe asks Nate if he loves Elena, which he does not deny. Chloe bids Nate goodbye as Sully leads a recovering Elena over to him. While Sully chases after Chloe, Elena and Nate pay their respects at Schäfer's grave before embracing. They share a kiss and together as they walk over to the edge of a cliff and watch the sun set behind the mountains. Cast *Nolan North as Nathan "Nate" Drake. *Emily Rose as Elena Fisher. *Claudia Black as Chloe Frazer. *Richard McGonagle as Victor "Sully" Sullivan. *Steve Valentine as Harry Flynn. *Graham McTavish as Zoran Lazarevic. *Michael Benyaer as Lt. Draza. *René Auberjonois as Karl Schafer. *Robin Atkin Downes as Tenzin. *Gregory Myher as Jeff. Development First revealed by Game Informer in December 2008, the first teaser trailer shows a weary, wounded Drake marching through a snowstorm to reach a phurba half-buried in the snow. Lead character artist Richard Diamant remarked that the trailer was rendered in real-time, using the game's engine. A second teaser trailer was released soon after, showing a badly wounded Drake stuck in the remains of a wrecked train hanging precariously over a cliff. Uncharted 2 features an online multiplayer component, the beta phase of which was playable by those who bought early copies of the game inFamous. The beta was also accessible by annual subscribers of the PlayStation Network service, Qore, on June 3, to those who have subscribed to Qore by May 15. The beta codes from Qore began to be sent out on May 8, 2009. Beta codes from inFamous shipped inside the game's packaging, on May 26, 2009. On September 15, 2009, another beta was released and an open beta was released to the EU and US on September 29, 2009 via the PSN store. Both expired on October 12, 2009. In the first year since the game's launch, more than 125 million matches and 10,500 man-years have been played online. On July 27, Naughty Dog Co-President Christophe Balestra revealed through a Twitter post that the game would not require installation to the PlayStation 3's hard drive. Motion Capture In E3 2009 videos from Naughty Dog showed the voice actors of the characters performing the motion captures in some of the scenes. The actors act out the scene wearing specially designed motion capture suits. Their performance was used to provide both the motion capture and voice work. The actors would even rehearse together in a room and had discussions with the creative directors of the game before carrying out the performance. Graphics and Technology Naughty Dog intended to maximize the utilization of the Cell's SPUs, as their estimates for utilization in the first Uncharted were only around 30%. As a result, the game has more realistic environments and animations. Uncharted 2 uses Naughty Dog Game Engine 2.0, a revamped and optimized version of the original engine that has allowed the game to have real-time moving environments, more realistic textures, and animations. The Naughty Dog Game Engine 2.0 also works in harmony with Havok Physics. On August 26, 2009, it was revealed that Uncharted 2 uses between 90 to 100% of the Cell's processor and uses all 25GB of a single Blu-ray Disc. However, Evan Wells later pointed out "...now it's at least busy 100% of the time, but it's still not fully-optimized code. I mean, in order to get to that 100%, it was more about making sure the pipeline was filled, and we weren't running into one of the processors becoming idle because there wasn't a job ready for it." In the interview, Christophe Balestra also pointed out how important it is to ship every system with a hard drive. "The fact that every PS3 has a hard drive is huge for us." He went on to describe how the game takes advantage of Sony's offerings. "It's the combination of Blu-ray and hard drive. You can play the entire game without loading. We don't require an install. We're doing all the post-processing effects on the Synergistic Processing Units." Screen Space Ambient Occlusion for example, was done completely on the SPUs. Post-Release Special Editions Naughty Dog's creative director Amy Hennig revealed a special Fortune Hunter edition of Uncharted 2 that is not obtainable in stores. The Fortune Hunter edition contains the game, a replica of the Phurba Dagger artifact and stand, a BradyGames strategy guide, an art book, the official soundtrack, and a collector's case autographed by Naughty Dog. It is also said to include various downloadable content. A collector's edition of Uncharted 2 was not announced for sale in the United States. SCEA marketing manager Asad Qizilbash told readers of the PlayStation Blog that the limited edition giveaways will take place on that blog, PlayStation Home, the game's multiplayer demo, and a few other unnamed places. Qizilbash also mentioned that only residents in the US are eligible to win. Only 200 copies were released. Exclusive to the PAL region, the Uncharted 2 special edition contains the game, gold versions of the Beretta and AK-47 weapons, two post cards, a PlayStation 3 theme, and multiplayer skins. The game comes packaged in a steel case by SteelBook. Never formally announced, the Special Edition was discovered on the game's official European launch site, with the only link for the special edition leading to one of Britain's major game retailers, Game. A Game of the Year Edition was released October 12, 2010. Among other features, this edition includes all previously released Downloadable content (with the exception of the Sidekicks Skin Pack), four motion comics, and Pinball Heroes: Uncharted for the PSP. Besides being available as an individual "Greatest Hits" title, Uncharted 2 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune have been released together, as a "Greatest Hits DualPack", and an "Ultimate Combo Pack" which includes a metallic blue DualShock3 controller. Downloadable Content The first DLC pack was released on November 27, 2009 and featured a new multiplayer map, "The Fort," from The Fortress chapter in Drake's Fortune for free. On December 11, 2009, "Uncharted: Eye of Indra Multiplayer Skin Pack" was released, exclusively for the PAL PlayStation Store. It includes all four parts of the motion comic Uncharted: Eye of Indra and two Uncharted 2 multiplayer skins based on the motion comic. The pack contains Rika for the heroes and Pinkerton for the villains. The pack was later released in North America. On January 28, 2010, the "PlayStation Heroes Skin Pack" was released, containing Sev and a Helghast soldier from Killzone 2, Nathan Hale and a Chimera from the Resistance series, and Cole (Evil and Good) along with Zeke from inFamous. The single player demo of Uncharted 2 was released on the same day. On February 25, 2010, a DLC pack that contained two new multiplayer maps, six skins based on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, 12 PSN Trophies, and 13 medals was released. Skins were released as a single purchase and the 2 maps with the 12 PSN Trophies were released as a single purchase. A bundle of both purchases was also released. On April 22, 2010, the third expansion pack, "Siege" was released. This DLC pack contained a new co-op multiplayer mode known as Siege, two new multiplayer maps, six new character skins and 11 PSN Trophies (10 of which are bronze, one of which is silver). Two of the six new skins are from Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and the other four are new and exclusive to the game. On August 26, 2010, the "Sidekick Skin Pack" was released, containing 6 alternate appearances of previously available characters, and 2 new villain skins, Dillon and Mac. On September 7, 2010, it was announced that new DLC for the game is on the way. On December 12, 2010, the previously exclusive "Golden Guns" DLC was released. This DLC pack contained gold skins for the AK-47 and Beretta weapons. Critical Reception Reception Uncharted 2 received universal critical acclaim, receiving numerous "Game of the Year" awards. The first publication to review Uncharted 2 was the French edition of PSM3. In their review, they called the game "Long, visually stunning, deep and explosive, Uncharted 2 combines all the qualities you can find in a videogame, and more! A new milestone has been reached in the videogame history." The magazine awarded the game its first ever, 21/20. PlayStation: The Official Magazine awarded the game a perfect score. In their review, they stated, "Forget Game of The Year. This is one of the greatest games of all time!". The UK edition of the magazine also gave the game a perfect score, and Uncharted 2 was later awarded "Game of the Year 2009" by the magazine. Later, readers of the same magazine voted it the greatest PlayStation title ever released. Hiawatha Bray of The Boston Globe said ...no video game has ever done a better job of capturing the style and rhythm of the movies. The action sequences in Uncharted 2 look as if they were shot by a team of cinematographers, then edited into a coherent and thrilling narrative. The game’s storyline is trite, but a first-rate cast of voice-over actors carry it off with flair. The Los Angeles Times review suggested the game would "fit better on a big screen in some multiplex", and also added that "Uncharted 2 is ridiculously immersive, so much so that you forget you are controlling the actions of treasure hunter Nathan Drake ... everything is done right." In a review for The New York Times, Seth Schiesel described it as "perhaps the best-looking game on any system, and no game yet has provided a more genuinely cinematic entertainment experience." The game has a GameRankings score of 96.41% and a GameStats score of 9.6/10. The game also received a Metacritic score of 96 out of 100, making it the most critically acclaimed game of 2009. IGN gave the game a 9.5 out of 10, praising its "stunning visuals" and saying "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is fantastic", and calling the multiplayer mode "one of the best multiplayer experiences that you'll find in any game around ... it almost feels like Naughty Dog has given us an extra game for free." Xplay's Adam Sessler gave the game a 5 out of 5, saying that "Uncharted 2 has the best Single Player I have ever played" The game was criticised for some negative issues, such as lapses in the control system. The New York Times noted that "...its finicky controls can frustrate at times." Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer found, "There are ... a few occasions where the platforming lets you down ... despite the feeling you were jumping in the right direction." IGN described certain repetitive gunfight sequences as "a little aggravating" and complained about the "very linear" climbing sections, yet calling it a forced complaint. The game was placed 19th in Dengeki online's reader poll of the best games of 2009, making it the only western game in the list. Sales NPD Group's sales data shows that Uncharted 2 was the top-selling game in the United States for October 2009, at about 537,000 units sold, while Media Create's sales data has Uncharted 2 selling 47,000 units for its first day in Japan. Phil Rosenberg of SCE says the game has crossed the one million sold mark on November 12, 2009. According to gaming analyst Jesse Divnich, Uncharted 2 is the third first-party title on the PlayStation 3 to sell over 1 million units in North America. As of February 2010, the game has sold over 3.5 million copies worldwide, becoming the fastest selling first-party title on any PlayStation platform. Uncharted 2 is now part of Sony's selection of Greatest Hits. On 28 September 2010, Naughty Dog announced the title had now sold 3.8 million worldwide. As of October 2011, 4.9 million copies of the game had been sold. Awards Uncharted 2 received over 200 Game of the Year awards. At Sony's E3 media briefing, an Uncharted 2 gameplay demo was shown early in the conference. Critics were very impressed with the demo, which led many to believe Uncharted 2 to be a strong competitor for "Game of the Year" with Uncharted 2 winning the most E3 awards of any game. After the game's release, it went on to win numerous awards, including a record eight award nominations in the Spike Video Game Awards and was voted for by fans for three wins, including Game of the Year. IGN, among numerous other video gaming websites and publications, awarded Uncharted 2 their overall Game of the Year award. The game also won 10 AIAS Interactive Achievement Awards including one for Overall Game of the Year. Links *"The winner of Destructoid Game of the Year 2009". Destructoid. *"GamePro's Best Games of 2009". GamePro. *"Gamespot's Best Games of 2009". *"Eurogamer's Game of the Year 2009". *"GameSpy Uncharted 2 Review". *"Uncharted 2: Among Thieves Review for the PlayStation 3". GameSpot. *"Gamepro Uncharted 2 Review". GamePro. *"Edge Uncharted 2". Edge Magazine. *"IGN Uncharted 2 Review". IGN *"Uncharted 2 Among Thieves may be the year's best game". The Los Angeles Times. *"Best of 2009 Awards". IGN. *"Gamers Choice Awards 2010". GameTrailers. *[http://www.unchartedps3.com/ The official international Uncharted 2 website] *[http://www.unchartedthegame.com/ The official US Uncharted 2 website] *Naughty Dog *[http://www.wikia.com/wiki/c:uncharted The Uncharted Wiki, an external wiki] *[http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Uncharted_2:_Among_Thieves Uncharted 2: Among Thieves guide] at StrategyWiki Category:2009 video games Category:Most Wanted Games Category:Game of the Year